This application relates to food processing techniques, and more particularly, to techniques for thawing frozen foods.
Food processing facilities, such as restaurants and the like, and particularly those facilities involved in processing seafood, have a need for quickly thawing frozen food products. Typically, thawing is accomplished by placing the frozen food product to be thawed in an open sink having a stand pipe set into the drain, and allowing cold tap water to flow into the sink at a rate of the order of five to eight gallons per minute for a sufficient period of time to thaw the frozen food product. The excess water is allowed to flow over the top of the stand pipe and to be drained away. This process has a number of disadvantages. It does not afford an even water temperature distribution throughout the sink, and the temperature differenitial between the top and the bottom of the sink may be as much as thirty degrees, which results in uneven thawing. Depending upon the quantity of frozen food to be thawed, this process may require three to four hours for complete thawing of all of the food product. At a flow rate of five to eight gallons per minute, this process wastes a tremendous amount of water. Moreover, the rather long time that the food product must remain immersed in water causes it to become waterlogged and some of its taste to be washed out.
There is a need for improved apparatus and methods for thawing frozen food products, particularly on a large scale, which avoid these and other disadvantages of known apparatus and methods, and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.